She never stop find the true happiness of her life, no matter how tough life is.īean’s family was a mess, in her words, it was “fucked up”. But finally she decides to find the real life that she wants. She has been through so many sorrowful and challenging situations that we can barely imagine. The story is about the protagonist – Bean Fallwell’s life from her conception all the way to almost thirty years after. The novel is absolutely telling an inspiring story. And as she migrates from schoolgirl to teen to young woman, and her dreams unfold from grill cheese sandwiches to self-sufficiency, she evolves into one of fiction's most memorable characters.

Without remorse or bitterness Bean moves forward, seeking her friendships where she can, casting spells to protect her younger sister, and seeking solace from whatever small sanctuaries her transient life offers.įrom engaging episodes as a religious-sponsored youth missionary in England and Europe, to the orchestrated pursuit of becoming an actress in Toronto, to the novel's end in Wyoming, Bean's life is as relentlessly whimsical as it is sad. This suitcase, a dominant metaphor in the novel, becomes Bean's touchstone that keeps her from spiraling into the dark worlds of her beautiful, screwed up mother and all the stray men she brings home her sad, exhausted father and her magnetic stepfather as he transforms from family saviour into drunken dragon. *Shortlisted for three 2008 Saskatchewan Book Awards: Fiction, First Book, and City of SaskatoonĬaught in the tight space between love and fear, Bean gallops through her early life picking up shiny bits of beauty along the way and tucking them into a red Samsonite suitcase.

Mostly Happy by Pam Bustin